Engaging with Law and Politics in a post-Roe World

The USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health, in partnership with USC Law & Global Health Collaboration and USC Keck School of Medicine Center for Gender Equity in Medicine and Science, invites you to join us for “Engaging with Law and Politics in a post-Roe World” on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 11 a.m.–noon PDT.

This one-hour virtual discussion brings together practitioners, activists and scholars engaged in addressing the current legal and political landscape around abortion in the United States and beyond. Expert panelists will provide insight into state differences in legal restrictions, political action seeking to secure access in this complex legal environment, and the implications of the US Supreme Court’s recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization for securing access in other parts of the world. Given the upcoming US midterm elections, and trends in other countries seeking to advance reproductive justice, this timely discussion will provide much needed information on the legal landscape and consider both challenges and opportunities in the months to come.

This event will be followed by a special 30-minute Zoom session from noon–12:30 p.m. PDT that will give USC students a space to discuss opportunities for activism in the months ahead. Come ready to learn, listen and reflect in a conversation facilitated by students from the USC Graduate Student Government, Inter-Health Council, Student Assembly for Gender Empowerment, and Latino Students in Medicine. To register for the IIGH Student Reflection session, click here.

Speakers:

Aziza Ahmed is a Professor of Law and R. Gordon Butler Scholar in International Law at the Boston University School of Law. Her scholarship examines the intersection of law, politics, and science in the fields of constitutional law, criminal law, health law, and family law. Ahmed is the author of the forthcoming book Feminism’s Medicine: Law, Science, and Social Movements in the AIDS Response, published by Cambridge University Press, and coeditor of the forthcoming handbook, Race, Racism, and the Law, published by Edward Elgar Publishing. She has held a number of faculty positions in law schools across the country, and was a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health’s Program on International Health and Human Rights. She came to that position after a women’s law and public policy fellowship with the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS. Professor Ahmed has served as an expert for many institutions, including the American Bar Association and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Professor Ahmed earned a BA from Emory University, a JD from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and an MS in Population and International Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Eszter Kismödi is Chief Executive of Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters and an international human rights lawyer specializing in sexuality, sexual and reproductive health and rights, abortion, and gender diversity. She has worked in legal and policy development, advocacy and programming across the world, including Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. Eszter has been a senior consultant with United Nations agencies, including UNAIDS, UNHCR, UNDP, and OHCHR, and international organizations such as the World Association for Sexual Health, and international NGOs, such as CREA. Between 2002 and 2012, she was the Human Rights Adviser at the Department of Reproductive Health and Research of the World Health Organization. Eszter is a member of the WHO’s Global Advisory Board on Elimination of Mother and Child Transmission of HIV and Syphilis, and a Board Member of GATE (Global Action for Trans Equality). She has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School and is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Global Health Justice Partnership of Yale Law School and Yale School of Public Health.

Jodi Jacobson is a long-time leader in the health and development community and an advocate with extensive experience in public health, gender equity, human rights, environment and demographic issues. She currently serves as Senior Philanthropic Advisor and Senior Director of Foundation Relations at Movement Voter Project and Movement Voter Fund, with a strategic focus on the upcoming mid-term elections. She is deeply committed to MVP’s mission of building power in vulnerable communities and protecting and expanding our multiracial democracy. She loves engaging with donors to invest their funds in efforts to better the lives of all people. Jodi is a former non-profit founder and executive director, advocate, lobbyist, policy analyst, journalist, and fundraiser with an entrepreneurial mindset and a track record of building successful organizations, publications, and departments from the ground up. In leadership roles prior to MVP, Jodi raised more than $65 million and hired and managed more than 200 professional staff, successfully building core capacities in finance and operations, data collection and management, communications, research, lobbying, advocacy, audience engagement and constituency outreach.

Lourdes Rivera is the Senior Vice President, U.S. Programs, at the Center for Reproductive Rights. She leads the Center’s U.S. program work, including litigation, judicial strategy, state policy and advocacy, human rights advocacy, and its Lawyers Network. Lourdes is a leader in the fields of health law and policy, women’s rights, and sexual reproductive health and rights. Prior to joining the Center in January 2017, Lourdes worked as a Program Officer and then Senior Program Officer at the Ford Foundation, where she managed U.S. and global grants for sexual and reproductive health and rights, using a social justice and human rights approach. She has been a leader in developing women of color organizations in the field and is widely known for putting the concept of intersectionality into practice. Before joining the Ford Foundation in 2006, Lourdes was the Managing Attorney of the Los Angeles office of the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) and specialized in issues relating to Medicaid, managed care, and women’s and children’s health. Previously, she worked in Washington D.C. as a Senior Associate with the Children’s Defense Fund, Health Division and as a Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow with the National Women’s Law Center. Lourdes has a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. in Latin American studies from Yale University.